Well i had a few dramas a couple of weeks ago, the fish were biting so i went and picked up the old man, put the rods on the roof rack ond off fishing we would go. Pulled out his drive and there was a click/bang and all drive was lost! Oops!
After years of abuse, bog holes, failed hill climbs etc here and in Australia and the rangie broke an axle on tarmac, on the 1st to 2nd shift at about 15kph! Didn't seem right somehow - that an old truck that has had the life mine has had should fail on the road. So i locked the centre diff and idled back in the gate to the packhouse, no fishing today (BUGGER!)
A quick tear down confirmed the front right axle had broken at the splines in the carrier. Fortunately Bodge came to our rescue and sourced an new axle, swivel seals and gaskets required from Tim and collected them while another family member did the mercy dash to Auckland to collect them while i finished pulling it all down. The axle had broken in the side gear meaning a full tear down, stripping of the carrier etc to get the side gear out to remove the mushroomed end of the axle.
The only good thing to come of all this was the discovery i have a 4 spider front carrier!!!
After a few hours of reseting up the diff by eye/feel and guessing at the back lash it all went back together quite easily. I also took advantage of having it all apart to replace the swivel seals and all the gaskets and for the first time ever i have a rangie with no front diff leaks. Now i just need the engine, gearbox, power steering and rear diff to runout of oil and i will have no more leaks!
It's got a bit more backlash than before but all is quiet, relatively speaking, and it's seems as good as ever.
The other odd thing i found was that when it all came apart there was a couple of teeth in the diff housing. Inspection of the crown wheel and pinion confirmed where they should have been and the welded up hole in the front of the diff housing explained how they probably parted company from their original location. I looked at it this way though, they made no noise before and never caused any problems and If had not pulled it all apart i would have never known.
It's one of the joys of rangie ownership - guessing what will break next!
Kevin